Listed are all launches, irrespective of outcome, that were irretrievably committed to flight towards orbit or intended to accelerate the payload to escape velocity.

Launch times are in UTC and are from the launching agency or estimated by 'walking back' along the ground track to the launch site. The PRIME source of orbit data and decay information is SpaceTrack. A minority of orbits is based on amateur observations using visual and radio techniques. Occasionally, early orbit data are published by satellite owners and may cover periods before SpaceTrack lists a new object. In extreme cases, orbits are estimated from public data.

Apogee and perigee are measured against the Earth's mean equatorial radius - 6378.145 km. Care should be exercised when comparing with other published orbits even when the source is shown as SpaceTrack.

World's first artificial satellite, instrumented sphere with radio transmitter. Built in short period of time because of delays in Korolyov's 'Object-D' science satellite. The orbit shown in approximate.

epoch (UTC)

s-m axis( km )

ecc

perigee( km )

apogee( km )

period( min )

incl ( ° )

ω ( ° )

1957 Oct 4, 19:18

6954

0.0520

214

938

96.19

65.10

58

1957-002

Sputnik 8K71PSBaikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan

1957 Nov 3, 02:30

Sputnik 2 (PS-2)1957 β 13

Re-entered 1958 Apr 14

Satellite with a pressurised cabin carring the dog "Laika". By design, the dog cabin and instrument unit remain attached to the launching rocket. Some thermal insulation came loose and subjected Laika to severely high temperatures and she died. The satellite was not designed for re-entry or recovery.

epoch (UTC)

s-m axis( km )

ecc

perigee( km )

apogee( km )

period( min )

incl ( ° )

ω ( ° )

1957 Nov 3, 02:22

7313

0.0990

211

1659

103.74

65.33

59

Failed to reach orbit

Vanguard TV-3Cape Canaveral AFS, Florida, USA

1957 Dec 6, 16:44

Vanguard

Orbital mission to evaluate the launch vehicle and and launch a minimum-sized satellite. Visual observations were to be used as data for measuring atmospheric denisty and the shape of the Earth. First stage lost thrust 1s after lift-off and the vehicle was destroyed by explosion when it settled back on the launch pad.